Hi
After experiencing buying some stuff from Shapeways from other designers I wanted to practice designing something myself and experience having something made. I designed a simple Dice Cup (for bar dice) on 123D and sent it to be printed and the pricing indicated was really high ($200-ish). I realize I need to go back to my design and thin out some walls and remove material but my question is, "What determines price?" is it basically the volume of material?

The Shapeways price is almost completely determined by volume. There is a small startup charge per model, but then the rest of the price is totally dependent upon the amount of material that your model uses.

Patience, Persistance, Politeness - the 3Ps will help us get us to Perfect Printed Products

The Shapeways price is almost completely determined by volume. There is a small startup charge per model, but then the rest of the price is totally dependent upon the amount of material that your model uses.

Only exception is ceramic material which is charged by surface area. And the startup charge varies by material - watch out for silver!